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I`d taken a holiday from work for today Fri 4 /3 & had decided to do something with my friend Steven ,my usual walking mate. Glencoe & The "wee " Buachaille was the choice.
MWIS were more or les spot on & the weather turned out to be quite good
Off from home at 545am - with trusty Oskar in tow -i picked Steven up in Tillicoultry at 6am and off we went.
En route , north of Callander we passed a lot of deer , quite low on the hills always a lovely thing to see.
We stopped at the Green Wellie to let Oskar stretch his 4 feet & have a pee.
Luckily / unluckily ??? the coffee shop/take away place didn`t open till 8am
It was only 7.30 -as i was driving Steven was on the coffee & bacon butty`s , so he saved a small fortune there !
But my luck was in , the wee roll van up on the A82 past Loch Tulla was open & ready for buisness-result.
After a roll & a cuppa we were off , arrived at the car park area & were off & away at 8.30 am. There was quite a lot of cloud which cleared through now & again ,giving tempting glimpses of the surrounding hills
The (newish?) path underfoot was great & there wasn`t a lot of water run off at all en-route. I didn`t appreciate at all how steep it was/seemed untill coming back down , when it jarred my knees a wee bit - not like me
We reached Mam Buidhe on the ridge in 1hr 10 mins , a very quick time - for me ! ( i thought )
Then up towards Stob Coire Raineach where we took some fotos & had a quick drink before turning around.
Returning down via the bealach we chatted to a guy on his own heading up to S.C.R , we met him again later as we decended Stob Dubh & he was making his way up.
I enjoyed the walk to Stob Dubh very much , the conditions were quite good , only at 1 point did we need to cross a snow section - Steven went 1st kicking steps in the softish snow - no real ice problems here at all , coming back down we glissaded down this for 25 yards or so - my 1st time doing this & it was great , very exciting - with my new ice axe- which i`d bought the previous day - i`d had to return the one i`d had "on long term loan" from a friend. I had crampons with me (also borrowed from a mate
) but they weren`t required.
At Stob Dubh we had our piece & coffee - well earned - & shared our summitting whisky with a guy who had come up from Dalness on the Glen Etive side. Break over we made our way down , again taking fotos en-route.
Back at the car at 1.30pm-5 hours all in including 1 short & 1 long break,i
was chuffed to bits with the time taken 
A wee stop at the Kings House for a refreshing pint
A trully wonderfull day out , i thoroughly enjoyed it , as usual Oskar did too.
Bealach at top of Mam Buidhe before climb to Stob Coire Raineach
cloud clearing to reveal view down into the glen
1 for the ladies ! Steven posing with the Big Buachaille behind him
nice foto towards Stob Dubh
Stob dubh summit looking back along ridge towards SCR
2 guys coming along towards Stob Dubh
looking back towards Stob Dubh summitt & 1 of the guys nearly there
a last look back at Stob Dubh
Steven merrily persued by Oskar glissading down a snow section - good stuff !!!!
Stob Coire Raineach nearly throwing off its misty halo & showing all to us on way down
